China in space.

ITEM: Florida Today waxed enthusiastic over Communist China's recent space launch. The "Chinese 'taikonaut' returned safely to Earth ... after a 21-hour orbital flight that put the world's most populous nation into a very exclusive club: It is now one of just three nations to have built their own rocket and sent one of their citizens into space, a technological feat previously accomplished only by Russia and the United States."

The paper, which boasts of "Serving Florida's Space Coast," urged on October 16 that President Bush should "seize the moment and do something we recommended a year ago--invite the Chinese to become partners in NASA's International Space Station program.... That would open the door to other cooperative efforts in the future...."

BETWEEN THE LINES: Florida Today's editorialists would have us believe that China's space efforts are utterly benign. This is not the case. To China's People's Liberation Army, this space mission was Project 921. China is already using help from the U.S. and Russia--stolen, reverse-engineered and otherwise obtained--to advance its program with its obvious military applications.

This launch, as noted in Aviation Week & Space Technology, included a military twin-optic Earth-imaging system, and likely carried an electronic intelligence eavesdropping payload. Chinese officials have admitted, as reported by Deutche Presse-Agentur, that they are working on lasers and missiles capable of destroying satellites at the same time Beijing and Moscow are promoting an international ban on space-based missile defenses.

The Shenzhou spacecraft clearly had a Russian Soyuz design, noted several experts. In addition, said Russia's Kommersant, "The spacesuits for Shenzhou and Soyuz differ only by the Russian and Chinese flag sewn to the sleeves." And Russia has long been given access to valuable U.S. space technology.

The Long March 2F rocket booster that launched the Shenzhou, reports China Reform Monitor, "was perfected with design recommendations by U.S. engineers that cost American taxpayers billions of dollars to develop [as part of] the 'Missile Gate' scandal during the Clinton Administration." Major U.S. aerospace firms were eventually fined for "giving technology to help China overcome problems in its rocket launchers," reported the San Jose Mercury News.

More cooperation could have dire consequences. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has remarked that the firms that helped Beijing potentially harmed U.S. security--since the same boosters that carry satellites also "carry the warheads that are aimed at American cities...."